M 100

M 100 is a grand design intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, 55 million light years from Earth. It was one of the first spiral galaxies ever recorded, discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 15, 1781.

This image was taken with our Officina Stellare RiLA 600mm f/5.0 telescope using an FLI ML16200 CCD camera cooled to -25C. Luminance detail was added to exposures taken through red, green and blue filters to create this full color image. Imaged and processed in Samphran, Thailand by the SC Observatory team: Mike Selby, Stefan Schmidt and Andy Chatman.